Amiot "Cubain" Métayer was, until recently, one of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's staunchest allies. As the unelected "president" of Raboteau, the most impoverished shanty town in Haiti's most impoverished city, Gonaïves, Cubain marshaled huge demonstrations in defense of Aristide. Now he is marshaling them to call for the president's resignation.

Everything changed on July 2, when Métayer was summoned to meet with Aristide. Instead of being driven to the National Palace, he was bundled into a car where men placed guns to his head, he says, and carted him off to jail.

"Aristide kidnaped me," Métayer later explained, "but the people said Cubain did not fight all these years to wind up like that."

It was the beginning of a month of escalating protests, which culminated on Aug. 2 with a crowd of his armed partisans knocking down the Gonaïves prison's wall with a commandeered tractor and freeing Métayer, along with 158 other prisoners, more than half the prison. One escaping inmate was shot.

Frenzied crowds then set fire to the courthouse, city hall, customs house, and a police pick-up in front of police headquarters.

"We will have nothing to do with Aristide anymore," one demonstrator told Haïti Progrès. "He betrayed us."

The roots of this "betrayal" stem from the endless concessions Aristide and his Lavalas Family party (FL) have been making over the past two years to Washington and the Republican-backed Democratic Convergence (CD), an opposition front which has now dwindled to 10 tiny parties. The CD has demanded the arrest and prosecution of popular organization leaders, like Cubain, who lead angry crowds in ransacking opposition figures‚ homes and headquarters on Dec. 17, 2001, after a 30-man commando attempted to assassinate Aristide and briefly captured the Palace.

"On Dec. 17, [Prime Minister] Yvon Neptune and [FL spokesperson] Jonas Petit telephoned us in our headquarters to tell us to block everything and to go to the Convergence houses with weapons and ammunition which the government gave us to prevent a coup d'état," Métayer's Revolutionary Forces of Raboteau (FRR), previously fearsomely named "Cannibal Army," explained in a press release. "Today, these same people want to arrest all the popular organization leaders."

In recent months, the government has arrested other popular organization leaders, including in March Ronald "Cadavre" Camille of the capital's La Saline slum (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 2, 3/27/2002). Another leader in the capital, Ronald Bèbè, has disappeared; his partisans believe that the government killed him.

These shanty town-based popular organizations have been Aristide's principal base of support over the past decade. Often they have been called upon to demonstrate in support of the Lavalas government, and even bodily defend it during coup attempts. The military killed many popular organization militants during the 1991-94 coup d'état. Now, to appease Washington, Aristide has begun arresting popular organization leaders, creating a huge backlash."Now we are removing the leash from our neck to place ourselves in the people's camp," the FRR declared in their note.

In a pathetic attempt to disguise its concessions to Washington, the government did not arrest Métayer for the events of Dec. 17 but instead concocted an allegation that he directed the arson of several homes in the Gonaïves neighborhood of Jubilé in May. The charge was flimsy and even Jubilé residents denied his involvement.

In the face of Gonaïves‚ upheaval, the government has gone into disarray. The police, who made themselves remarkably scarce during the assault on the prison (despite repeated ultimatums from Cubain's supporters), favor a hard-line response. "This is a case of extreme banditry which requires an extreme remedy," declared police spokesman Jean Dady Siméon. The police have deployed the U.S.-trained heavily-armed Company for Intervention and for the Maintenance of Order (CIMO) as well as the Coast Guard off shore to catch sea-going fugitives. Métayer has charged that the government has been dropping grenades on Raboteau from a helicopter. On Aug. 6, police exchanged gun-fire with men stationed at a burning-tire barricade in the Gonaïves neighborhood of Bito. So far the Police have captured 10 escapees, five in Gonaïves, two in Cap Haïtien, and three outside of Port-au-Prince.

Meanwhile, Aristide is trying to calm spirits and assuage Métayer and the FRR, along with other Raboteau popular organizations. He dispatched Palace representative Jose Ulysse to the city to negotiate and defuse "the logic of confrontation"(Ulysse's words), but so far the old magic isn't working. "We were very happy to meet with Mr. Ulysse," said the FRR's Wenter Etienne, "so that we could send President Aristide this message: it is time for him to go, to leave power."

This sentiment was echoed by demonstrators who filled the streets on Aug. 5 crying "Down with Aristide, Long Live Cubain."

"He just offers more lies, more bluffs, more dilatory tactics, and more high cost of living," cried one demonstrator.

FL officials tried to blunt the uprising by making vague, hence ineffectual, insinuations. Communications Secretary Mario Dupuy declared that there is "a hidden hand which doesn't want the crisis to end." The Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council was to deliberate on Aug. 2 to put the final touches on an accord between the CD and FL and possibly recommend releasing frozen aid disbursements to Haiti, but the body postponed the meeting due to "the situation."

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said that Raboteau had "cells of delinquents" which were easily drawn into this uprising, which was part of a "destabilization" campaign. Deputy Wilken Candy charged that "a lot of money and a lot of arms were given out to make those things happen in Gonaïves" and that "it is not something innocent." Deputy Millien Romage also called it a "destablilization movement" but asserted that "it is not a national movement, and it cannot overturn President Aristide."

But the unrest has shown signs of spreading. This past week, riots, in which four people were wounded, shook the northwestern city of Port-de-Paix, and large demonstrations occurred in the southern city of Petit Goâve. A large protest rally is planned for Hinche, on the Central Plateau, at the end of August.

Not so ironically, Washington has thrown its support behind the Haitian government. "The violent actions of popular organizations‚ and street gangs are deplorable," said U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker in an Aug. 5 press statement. "We call upon the Government of Haiti to take all necessary steps to restore order and the rule of law in the city of Gonaïves. In order to protect the people of Haiti and prevent further lawlessness, Haitian authorities should pursue and re-arrest all prison escapees, including Cubain‚ Métayer, who is charged for perpetrating serious acts of violence in Gonaïves."

OAS Secretary General César Gaviria seconded this position. "It is imperative that the authorities reestablish public order and that all citizens recognize that the rule of law must prevail," he said.

In recent weeks, Washington and the OAS have warmed up to the Haitian government as it has continued concessions, stepped up repression, and rounded up popular organization leaders. For example, nine unionists have been illegally jailed without charges for over two months after a crackdown in Guacimal (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 11 5/29/2002) and Aristide has signed away about 10% of Haitian territory (1875 km2) along the border for a giant free trade zone which will likely be patrolled by Dominican and U.S. troops (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 17, 7/10/2002).

As a reward, Washington and the OAS snubbed a recent CD demand for the posts of Prime Minister and chief of police and are pressing the opposition front to settle their dispute with the FL.

Right-wing neo-Duvalierist parties, like the ALAH of Reynold Georges and the MDN of Hubert Deronceray, which have recently split from the Convergence, welcome the Gonaïves uprising as a step toward their long coveted "zero option," the overthrow of Aristide. But the mostly social democratic parties which remain in the CD front, like Gérard Pierre Charles‚ OPL, Serge Gilles‚ PANPRA, and Victor Benoit's KONAKOM, long for a power-sharing arrangement with the FL. They applauded Métayer's arrest and have remained uncharacteristically mum about events in Gonaïves, perhaps gauging Aristide's chances of survival.

Back in Gonaïves, the police are still unable to venture into Raboteau, where a strange alliance of once-fervent Aristide supporters and former Macoutes (Duvalierist thugs) has emerged. Leading demonstrations with Cubain is Jean "Tatoun" Pierre, who was recently sentenced to life hard labor for his role in the April 1994 Raboteau massacre. "I am happy that Cubain freed me from prison," Tatoun said. "We are going to work together to make Aristide leave."

Métayer seems to agree. He is calling for Aristide to step down and be replaced by the head of the Supreme Court. In an Aug. 3 interview with Radio Métropole, he called Aristide "ungrateful" (which Aristide has often labeled his estranged allies). "Every time we fight for a president, they always end up giving us absolutely nothing," he said.